High-tech accountability for your health

Many of us know firsthand that losing weight and staying fit can be tough.

I started a journey a little over a year ago to get in better shape before my 30th birthday. While diet and exercise were the ultimate keys to my success, technology played an important role in keeping me accountable, tracking my progress and making my workouts more effective.

While losing weight and staying fit can be tough, technology can help play an important role in keeping a person accountable, tracking his or her progress and making workouts more effective. [CREDIT: Michael Felberbaum, via AP]

Now that I’ve reached some of my fitness goals, I’d like to share the tools I used. These will be more important to me than ever as I try to maintain my weight loss and improve strength and endurance. (Cue the “Rocky” fanfare.)

ACCOUNTABILITY
Technology helped me keep tabs on what I was eating and how many calories I was burning.

I used MyFitnessPal, a free service that lets you maintain a digital diary of your food choices, cardio work and strength training.

Because you can update entries using a phone app or a website, you have almost no excuse not to enter the information. Apps are available for the iPhone, the iPad and Android, BlackBerry and Windows devices.

When first using the program, you’re prompted for such information as weight, height, age and activity level. That’s used to create a plan for how many calories you should eat and what percentage should come from protein, fat or carbohydrates. You can also set your own parameters.

You then enter what you’re eating (and drinking) for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as snacks, and the app records the calories, fat, protein, carbs and vitamins. MyFitnessPal has an extensive list of fresh and packaged foods to choose from. Choose an apple or a can of Campbell’s soup, and MyFitnessPal will add the nutritional information to your count. The database also includes popular recipes found in magazines, so you don’t have to enter the ingredients individually.

You can even copy an entire meal to another day if you’re a creature of habit like me. Or use your phone’s camera to take a picture of a barcode and have the app look up the nutritional information for you.

MyFitnessPal also lets you enter your workouts and strength training. You simply select the activity, such as cleaning, walking the dog, taking a spinning class or, for me, playing ice hockey. Based on your personal health information, the service calculates the number of calories burned. While the numbers are only estimates, they provide a pretty solid guideline.

The app will project your weight in five weeks and tell you whether you’re eating too few or too many calories. You can connect with friends and relatives who also are using the service.

This is no ordinary scale. It measures your weight, body fat, lean muscle and Body Mass Index, and also connects to the Internet so you can keep track of your measurements through its website or an iPhone app (iPad and Android versions coming soon).

The scale can track up to eight different people, with separate accounts for each.

EFFECTIVE WORKOUTS
Logging how many calories you burned during any activity can be a constant guessing game. Many gym-goers rely on general numbers that the treadmill, bicycles or elliptical machines provide, but those aren’t always accurate.

After trying a few different wearable monitors, I found the most helpful tool was a heart rate monitor.

Basic monitors in the $100 price range can encourage people to get active, while options costing more than $400 are available that can measure how far you’re running or how fast you’re cycling. I tested a Polar RCX5 ($349.95) .

After entering my height, weight and age, I strapped the elastic band around my chest and clipped in the heart rate monitor that transmits data wirelessly to a unit on my wrist.

After you choose a workout, such as running, cycling or swimming, the Polar times you and tracks your calories burned based on your heart rate. I found that moderate activities seem to burn more fat, but fewer calories, while higher-intensity workouts burn more calories, but less fat.

When you’re done with a workout, all of the exercise information you record can be transferred through your computer to Polar’s personal training website, where it’s analyzed and tracked to help you reach fitness goals and train more effectively.

EXTRAS
Let’s face it: Going to the gym can get kind of boring. But listening to music, or watching movies and TV shows on your mobile devices, can help keep you motivated.

For me, the PowerBeats by Dre ($149.95) stood the sweat test and still provided great sound and the option to answer phone calls and control volume from the earphones.

Last modified: October 30, 2012
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